School Traffic Zones

School Traffic Zones

State law says New York City can lower speed limits on streets within 1/4-mile of school. Counting both public and private schools, that's 2/3 of city's streets -- including 87% of Manhattan streets, 82% of Brooklyn streets and 74% of those in The Bronx.

1/4 mile radius around a school

Flyouts go here

Source

Using free mapping software QGIS, we drew a 1,320-foot circle around the geographic location of each NYC public school, as of the 2011-2012 school year and each private and parochial school, from a 2013 City Planning Department database. We then determined which city streets -- excluding highways, ramps and walkways -- fell within those circle, using U.S. Census street data. Finally, we used the mapping program to determine the length of those streets in feet, and converted that to miles. Total street footage for the city and each borough were calculated using the same method and same U.S. Census data.

School Traffic Zones

State law says New York City can lower speed limits on streets within 1/4-mile of school. Counting both public and private schools, that's 2/3 of city's streets -- including 87% of Manhattan streets, 82% of Brooklyn streets and 74% of those in The Bronx.

Data

Source

Using free mapping software QGIS, we drew a 1,320-foot circle around the geographic location of each NYC public school, as of the 2011-2012 school year and each private and parochial school, from a 2013 City Planning Department database. We then determined which city streets -- excluding highways, ramps and walkways -- fell within those circle, using U.S. Census street data. Finally, we used the mapping program to determine the length of those streets in feet, and converted that to miles. Total street footage for the city and each borough were calculated using the same method and same U.S. Census data.